11:39

by Holly Hook

  I have to get over this fence now. By myself.

  My jeans snag on the chain-link, but I manage to climb over and stumble down onto the grass of the field. I dart for the rift, which wavers and fades away completely, then sputters back. The gold curtains swish faster like they’re urging me closer, begging me to hurry. My hair stands on end.

  I enter the rift. It moves around me like some dying aurora, wrapping around my skin and—

  I’m falling. The universe snaps to gold and I’m plunging through glitter and screaming light. I hold my breath. It can’t last long. It’s even worse than the time Simon was with me. I have nothing to hold onto. I’m on my own here.

  And then, I land.

  I’m in the Main Chamber again, surrounded by light and open space. I'm in a squat, shaking. The sound of my hitting the floor flies away, then echoes back at me several seconds later. I straighten and take a breath. Turn. Study all the tiny, distant exits to this place, seemingly miles away. There isn’t another soul here. Is it always this empty? Being late at night shouldn’t matter. Time doesn’t even move here. I'm standing in the body of Time itself, which must span across the whole universe.

  The corridors all stretch out in front of me, infinite and huge. If I peek out of the corner of my eye, I can see stars shining through the crystal that makes up the floor. I feel tiny, like a speck of dust floating through all existence and not some immortal that has the job of keeping Time in order.

  Which way do I go? Dozens, maybe hundreds, of corridors branch off from here. Getting from one side of the Main Chamber to the other is like walking across a whole town. Simon and I have walked through here lots of times. I’ve never seen any rhyme or reason to the way they’re ordered. You can find all times and places just down one hallway alone.

  For the first time, I realize what a daunting task I have.

  I must find 1912 in the millions, maybe billions, of rifts that are here.

  I close my eyes and try to focus. There has to be some way other than those plaques over the gateways. Some innate ability I should have now that will lead me to the right place. I feel incredibly stupid standing here in the middle of this vastness, eyes closed like I’m trying to conjure something into existence.

  Nothing comes. I keep staring into the darkness behind my eyelids. Maybe I don’t have an ability to locate any time I want after all.

  “Confusing, isn’t it?”

  I jump and open my eyes and my heart leaps like someone’s hit me in the face.

  It’s Isabel, standing in the middle of the room like she’s just arrived. Which I realize, she probably has.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask before I can think. I know it’s rude, but the shock hasn’t worn off. I scan the room for Frank, but he’s a no-show. I let out a breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to bite your head off.”

  Isabel smiles. There’s no trace of Frank’s evil there, no trace of his plans to murder me. “I didn’t mean to scare you, Julia. I figured you would show up here sooner or later. Without Simon, that is. You have to be impatient about getting your family back. I would be.”

  “Without Simon?” How much does she know about how he’s dragging his feet? Maybe they’ve been talking. Isabel, at least, seems to be on our side even though she helped to send me back to 1912. She’s the one who told Frank that Time was claiming me, to leave me alone. She defended me yesterday when they were talking here in the Chamber.

  “Yes,” she says. She’s not smiling now. “Without Simon.”

  My stomach coils, and I’m not entirely sure why. “So you know he’s taking forever to work out a plan.” I don't know if I can trust her. “Are you here to stop me? I get it. Time doesn’t want things screwed up and you have to do your job. And my family surviving the sinking of the Titanic would end the world, wouldn’t it? My dad and my brother were meant to die. Isn’t that the only reason my little brother was born? Do you have any idea what it’s like to watch the icy Atlantic take away and drown your five-year-old brother while he’s screaming for your help?”

  I hiccup. My eyes are wet. I look down at the crystal floor and through it to the stars beyond. I’m bursting into tears right in front of Isabel and I don’t care. All I care about it seeing my family safe again and being in Simon’s arms and starting a new life together. That’s all I want.

  “Julia, who said I was going to stop you?” She still pronounces her w's like v's.

  I hiccup again. “Huh?”

  “Look up,” Isabel says.

  I do. She’s sad. Sorry. I don't know whether that makes me feel better or worse.

  “I didn’t want to send you back to 1912,” she says. “It was a rotten assignment for me. I hated every moment of it. But we can’t refuse our assignments. Simon probably told you what happens if we do.”

  “We get stuck in our quarters,” I say, speaking over the lump in my throat. I’m listening. Isabel’s got me on a line and she’s reeling in.

  “Stuck with our worst memories,” Isabel says. “We’re all from tragedies, Julia. All of us Timeless…we should be dead. Frank was assigned to you because you were a very difficult case, a very sad case, and Time knew he would do his duty no matter what. He always does. Most of us couldn’t stomach sending a person back to a tragedy. It’s rare, but it happens.”

  A difficult case. I’m always a case. “So why were you assigned to me?”

  She ignores my question. “I was hoping you would escape,” Isabel says. “And you did. That’s why I told you what your necklace meant back in the restaurant. It must have helped to restore your memory when you were back on the Titanic. I know that’s what Simon was aiming for.”

  I look down at the coal necklace that still hangs from my neck. The black flecks inside the gold teardrop tumble around each other, shining weakly in the light. “Um…thanks? And you've been talking to Simon?" I'm not mad at her. Only curious.

  Isabel nods. “Follow me.”

  She turns away and heads towards one of the corridors on the left, a random one that I probably wouldn’t have chosen or looked at twice out of all the others. Is she going to lead me right to the gateway I need? She’d know where it is since she’s dealt with me before.

  I have no other choice. I have no idea where to go. And besides, I don’t think Isabel wants to hurt me. She can’t hurt me. And why hasn't Simon at least showed me where the Titanic rift is? Is he afraid I'll rush into things if I find it?

  We enter the hallway and rifts stretch into infinity on both sides of us. Isabel’s silent as we walk. I stare at each rift as we pass, wondering what's behind each one. There’s so many times. So many places. How is anyone supposed to remember where anything is here? All I can remember is the gateway back to Trenton, which I know is four hallways over from this one.

  I hope he doesn’t wake up and find me gone. I’m doing the exact thing that’s going to worry him.

  “Isabel,” I ask. “How do you remember where to go?”

  She looks at me and her blond hair swings out of her face. “Once you use a gateway, you know where it is forever,” she says. “You’ll only remember how to get to the ones you’ve used before. If the Timeless knew all of the gateways that are here, it would make our brains explode. Not literally, of course.” She smiles again and it makes me feel a whole lot better.

  “Then how come I don’t remember where the one to the Titanic is?”

  “Because you only came through it as a mortal,” she says. "That doesn't count."

  “I believe it.” I know what I'll do. I'll go through to 1912 and come right back out again, just so I can get the memory of where that rift is for later. I can’t save my brother and father until I have a good plan for hiding them or at least getting them on a lifeboat. Simon’s right about one thing. I don’t want to risk pulling them through at the moment Simon and I fell off the ship. I was barely able to save myself. But at least I’m finally on my way to saving them.

  “We’re almost there,” Isabel says. “Oh, it’s
here.”

  She stops and my heart leaps. This rift seems like all the others. It's just another archway filled with gold, swishing curtains.

  “Is this really the one?” I ask. I have to make sure Isabel's not lying. Of course, I can't prove she's truthful until I go in for myself and see.

  “I'm positive.”

  My heart feels like it’s ripping apart. My chest hurts. This rift doesn’t do my brother or my father justice, either, or any of the others. There's nothing special about it. It's just one among billions here, tucked into a neat little row A streak of rage tears through me and I hit the crystal wall next to it so hard that pain shoots up my fist and into my arm.

  Isabel backs away like she’s respecting my moment of anger.

  “I know. I know. It’s awful,” she says. “It’s terrible, staring at your rift and knowing your family is on the other side.”

  She speaks from somewhere deep. Somewhere that’s hurting.

  I face her again. I breathe deep, taming the monster in me. “Is there a rift on the ship? One my father and my brother can come through?”

  “No,” Isabel says. “The only ones on the ship are the two we Timeless opened there. Like the one Frank tried to pull Simon through, and the one we pulled you out of.”

  “Then the only way to save my family is to either get them on a lifeboat or stop the ship from sinking.”

  She nods. “Exactly. Well, you could get your brother on one, but your father would be another matter.”

  “And you don’t want to stop me? You don't want to keep Time in order here?”

  She doesn’t say anything to that. Instead, she nods at the archway.

  Then I realize.

  She’s waiting for me to go through.

  My heart’s pounding. I’m not ready to do this, but every inch of me wants to leap through that archway, go below decks and wrap my arms around Melvin and drag him up to the lifeboats and put him in. I want my father to tell me that life will be all right, that we will have that new life after all. And since I’m Timeless now, I won’t lose my memory when I go through this time. I’ll be able to save them. But what about my past self? She’ll waste time looking for Melvin and my father. Things might work out different, and she might not get Simon’s blood on her forehead. I’ll have to make sure that my past self is marked with Simon’s blood, so that I don’t screw things up further and die all over again.

  And at what point in the sinking will I end up when I go through? Before the ship hits the iceberg? After? At the moment the ship breaks in half? The thought of enduring the sinking a second time is too much to bear.

  There are too many ifs.

  I’ll just take a peek. Stick my head in and come back out. Make sure this gateway will take me through to a point where I can even do anything.

  I hold my breath, raise my hand, and brace for the cold that’s on the other side. Isabel tenses next to me, watching, waiting.

  My fingers go through the gold. Hit the solid crystal on the other side.

  I try again.

  Still solid.

  Again.

  Nothing. I don't even feel my hair standing on end like with all the other rifts I've traveled through.

  “What?” I ask, heart pounding. “Why isn’t this working?”

  Isabel backs away, sheepish.

  “I knew Simon wouldn’t tell you right away,” she says. “We Timeless can’t go back to where we came from. We can only go to times where we never lived our natural lives. It’s so we don’t go back and mess with things. And by the way, Simon wasn’t the one who pulled you out of 1912 the first time you came to the present. He couldn’t. It was me. I’m the one who pulled you out.”

  Chapter Seven

  I recoil.

  No. It can’t be.

  Simon told me that he’d rescued me front he Titanic the first time and brought me to Nancy. Why would Isabel pull me out?

  “But…” I sputter. “Simon told me that he brought me through. He’s not lying to me.” An ache fills my chest. Simon? Lying? Is this why he doesn’t have a plan for saving my family yet? Why didn’t he tell me this?

  I leap into the rift that leads to my family. The gold curtains wave around me, mocking me. I'm not falling. Isabel watches me from the other side, waiting. I’m locked out. She's telling the truth.

  “Did he?” she asks. “Or did he just say that he had you pulled out? There is a difference.”

  I don’t know. I can’t remember his exact words. Did he? I want it to be true, that he’s not deceiving me.

  “Oh, Simon’s not the kind of guy who would flat out lie to you,” she says. “He probably didn’t know how to tell you all of this. He didn’t you that time would claim you as one of us. When it happened, I think it surprised him.”

  I’m shaking. “No,” I say. I couldn’t have done this for nothing. My family can’t really be shut away from me forever.

  Isabel’s sad again. She walks to the archway. Reaches for it. Her hand vanishes somewhere in the gold glitter and she brings it back out. “It’s always so cold on the other side.”

  I turn away and I’m running.

  How could she? How could Isabel drag me all the way out here just to tell me that there’s no hope?

  How could Simon not be the one to tell me? It shouldn’t have come from her.

  “Julia!” she calls. “I haven’t finished. Stop!”

  I don’t even know which way I’m running. The endless hall stretches in front of me. Rifts whiz by. I don’t care where I end up. I can’t go back home, to where Simon dreams about the truth.

  “I mean it. Stop!” Footfalls thud after me.

  I keep going. Not so much from Isabel, but from Simon.

  I can't go back to my bed now where he's waiting.

  I just can't.

  Isabel calls my name again.

  My gaze lands on a random gateway and I dart for it, slowing enough to hear my sneakers skidding on the crystal floor. I dive into gold. I'm falling through the scream. It's a time I never spent my natural life in. It'll work for now.

  Simon should have told me. He should have told me when we met at school and I learned what he was.

  My hair flies back and I land. The world snaps back into focus.

  I breathe out. Crickets chirp all around me and it's night. At first, I think I'm back in Trenton in front of my school, but it's completely different here. Humongous trees rise around me, pointed at the sky. They're black silhouettes against a backdrop of stars. I've never made out so many of them. Around me, it's almost pitch black, a level of dark that I've never stood in before.

  I'm in a wilderness. When, I don't know.

  I turn. The rift I just popped through waves and shimmers in front of me, alive and vibrant. A swooshing sound fills the air. The grass around it is bright green in the light. This rift is strong, a glowing beacon in the dark. It's not going to disappear for a while.

  Something snaps not too far away and a wolf howls. This is no-civilization-has-been-invented yet wilderness.

  Good. I want to be alone.

  I don't even care what animals are in these woods. Nothing can kill me, anyway.

  I stalk away from the rift and realize that there's no way I can see ahead of me. I feel like I'm walking into a void. I plop down on an overturned log at the edge of the light and pick a stick up. I prod the ground with it, making pointless patterns in the dirt. I must be at someone's fire pit. There's a heap of sticks only feet away from me.

  Simon should have told me. He shouldn't have let me get my hopes up.

  Now my family's locked away in tragedy forever.

  I throw the stick away into the dark. It arcs over the dark fire pit and crashes somewhere in the trees. More twigs snap. I've scared something away.

  I can't cry. I can't even scream. I can only stare at that dirt under my shoes.

  Feet hit the ground somewhere close. I know it's Isabel. She's followed me.

  “No offense, but I want to be left alon
e right now,” I say.

  “Julia.” She runs up to me and her feet swing into my vision. She's wearing white and purple tennis shoes. Jeans. We're both so out of place here. “I didn't mean to disappoint you, but you needed to know.”

  “Thank you.” I can't turn her away. If she's right, she's the reason I'm still alive. I owe her my life. “So Simon had you get me out of there the first time?” I'm not mad about that part. I'm furious because he didn't tell me that we couldn't go back through to 1912.

  Isabel sits down on another log. Yes, we're at a fire pit. “Simon tried to save you so many times. He tried, over and over and over again, to get the gate to 1912 to open for him. We've all tried to return to our times. It never works. So he asked me to help out. I pulled you into the Hub where he was waiting. You don't remember this, of course. You were still mortal at the time, so your memory got erased after it happened. The first thing you should remember is being on Nancy's doorstep. This is the real reason Time chose me to send you back. I have done something it thinks is wrong, and it decided to make me pay for it.”

  I nod. The knot in my chest loosens. There's no lie in Isabel's words. At least, I hope that there isn't.

  “I'm sure that Simon didn't know how to tell you that the Timeless can't go back to their original times,” she says. “But I know you want to save your family. I understand. There is a small chance you can get them back. But it's going to be a lot of work and it's going to be dangerous. Simon wants to protect you from what could happen.”

  I look up. She has my ears. “There's still a way?” Is she saying that she'll go in and get them for me? Why didn't Simon just tell me that we could get Isabel to help us? It can't be that easy. Something about the look she has on her face tells me it isn't. “Okay. Just tell me what I need to do. I'm going with or without Simon.”

  Darkness creeps over Isabel's features and the rift shifts a few feet away. “You will have to see things you don't want to see again.”